Christmas 2013

Wednesday

Dec 25, 2013 at 12:01 AM

One of our favorite films this year was a documentary about Freda Kelly. Who, you might ask, is she? Freda lived her life as a secretary, scraping to get by. When the film was made, she was still working...

One of our favorite films this year was a documentary about Freda Kelly. Who, you might ask, is she? Freda lived her life as a secretary, scraping to get by. When the film was made, she was still working six days a week, at 68. Few friends knew anything about her past, and her own children knew next to nothing.

But Ms. Kelly was, at one time, often featured in the media. She ran the Beatles Fan Club during the 1960s and early 1970s, and was close to each member of the famous rock group and their families in Liverpool. She was a fan before they hit it big, knew Paul McCartney’s home phone number by heart (when he still lived with his dad), and was wont to ring him up to make song requests. Later on, she could have cashed in by selling their secrets, but didn’t. She had boxes of memorabilia — worth millions of dollars to collectors — that she simply handed away to other fans for free. What she prized most was in her heart.

At one point in the film, Ms. Kelly reflected with tears in her eyes about the many friends and family members she loved who have died, some at the very pinnacle of celebrity and fortune — John Lennon, assassinated; Beatles manager Brian Epstein, dead from a drug overdose; George Harrison and others, consumed by cancer.

“I think fame and money don’t mean anything,” she said with a quivering voice. “All the wealth doesn’t cure cancer, does it?”

Christmas Day has a way of reminding us of that. At some point, we all discover that the gifts under the tree are merely tokens — poor ones, at that — for what really matters: the love we feel for each other.

Love — and not materialism — remains at the heart of the beautiful Christian celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, despite all the sour annual laments by naysayers. Borrowing from pagan culture, the holiday celebrates the passing of the old year into new life and new hope — the hope that every child’s birth and every fresh year promises. Celebrants recognize and embrace the darkness, but make it happier and prettier with small colored lights and greenery adorned with festive red bows.

For many, this is the time when family members draw together from their far-flung pursuits, so that they can laugh and hug again. Those who have lost a dad, a mom, a spouse, a sibling or a child know all about what this day really means, because they feel that absence and savor fond memories with a special poignancy at Christmas.

During the long year, many of us struggle to get ahead: to grow as people, to provide for others, to defend our turf. But we crave a moment of ritual to honor peace, to put aside striving and animosity, to remember our love and concern for others — all integral parts of the Christian gospels and the Christmas story.

The wisest among us discover that fame and money don’t ultimately mean anything — that incomparable riches can be found in the fleeting fun of children’s faces, the singing of carols, the kisses under the mistletoe and the passing around of pumpkin pie.